Building the Tools to Legalize P2P Video-Sharing

Would you be willing to pay your ISP five bucks a month to be allowed to download as much as you want from torrent sites and other file-sharing hubs? The idea of legalizing P2P through such a flat-rate licensing scheme has been getting more and more traction within the music industry in recent months. Noank Media CTO Devon Copley believes his company can be an essential part of such a flat-rate model.

Noank, which demonstrated some of its technology at the DCIA’s P2P Media Summit in Los Angeles this week, builds tools that help to measure what kind of files users consume in flat-rate licensing environments. However, there’s something particularly intriguing about Noank’s solution: It works for video as well. Even the most vocal proponents of legal P2P rarely dare to suggest that Hollywood’s movies should be paid for by an ISP fee, but Copley believes such a development is inevitable. Continue reading on Newteevee.com.

Copley was actually very much convinced that collective licensing only works if it also takes care of the long tail.

I think both is possible. One could of course build a system that will only compensate established artists with recording contracts, but there's also a chance to build an open registry that could benefit everyone who wants to participate.

How about instead, everyone who downloads music or movies contributes $5 a month to the legal fees of those who have been sued by the dinosaur-industry? They're getting desparate, so they now ask us for compromise after waging war on us.

Everyone knows these label giants don't stand for the artist, they stand for the dollar. So don't give them one inch of ground.

Bill, I understand your frustration, but the beauty of a flat fee model is that it would actually send more money to indie artists signed to labels that have never sued file sharers. That's why labels like Nettwerk really like this idea ...